[decooney]

Floridaboy,

[EDIT] As I'm finding out with more break-in time on the MHDT Labs Orchid DAC, and starting to try the different tubes:

The characteristics of more or less "midrange" appears to be tube specific in the MHDT Orchid DAC.

Factory GE Tube provided is fairly neutral and and retains detail, not overly smoothed over - sounds nice. Not bad at all for a factory supplied tube.

WE396A/2C51 tube is a tad warmer, more pronounced midrange and mid bass, highs rolled off a tad; but it allows you to listen to just about anything with no digital glare or "artifacts" as you noted previously. As discussed offline this could be a great tube for someone running a brighter sounding solid state amplifier with the MHDT DAC. Sounds good with my tube preamplifier and tube amplifier combo but I'd really like to see how it sounds with a nice SS amp, could be a great combo!

GE 5-Star is a great balance of detail and smoothness so far. It offers a larger sound stage than the WE tube with more detail in trade for extra plushness with the WE. Kinda liking the GE 5-Star too so far.